TWA Hodgepodge!

Hodgey

If you've been reading this blog for any amount of time, you know that I stan pretty hard for Rafael Nadal and especially for his sexy ass. His record at the French Open is nearly unblemished and it's crazy, because every year, he shows up at Roland Garros acting like it's just not gonna happen this year, friends. 

This year, he showed up having lost in the final of a warm-up tournament to Diego Schwartzmann, who is a problem on clay to say the least. Then, because of the pandemic, the French Open was held a good four months later than usual and in colder temperatures. So Rafa showed up to the Open, with Schwartzmann in his piece of the draw, and says, in essence: 'This year is gonna be tough -- these tennis balls are trash and it's cold.' 

The other person I stan hard for is Venus Williams, so I don't have a lot of hope left in my wishing well, in this the 3,854th day of 2020. So it was hard to watch Rafa at first for this tournament, because I was thinking he was going to struggle. But I forgot that Rafa is always most down about himself and it's usually for no reason at all. But, my goodness, what can you say about Nadal's play during this tournament that hasn't been said? Who does that to Novak Djokovic in a major final? And who didn't half expect one of those moments that Djokovic produced that return when he was on the robes against Roger Federer in the 2011 U.S. Open final that turned the whole match around? Because it wasn't even that Djokovic looked that bad. 

I'm just saying, I saw it and I was more than impressed with Rafa, the least likely to have a long, prosperous career, according to all the tennis pundits in the early 2000s. To be fair, many of them were looking at Federer when they said this. 

And I've said this before, but I am looking forward to all hands being back on the tennis deck, especially for the women. The WTA is building quite the stable of players who will be mixing it up for at least a decade to come. Where does Iga Swiatek fit in there? I mean, based on the way she spanked Simona Halep in the first week, I'm going to say pretty high up there? I would say between Naomi Osaka/Bianca Andreescu and Elina Svitolina. So, anyway, the French Open was good. I'm glad there were no major outbreaks. Maybe if everyone acts right, we can get a full Slam with all healthy hands on deck in 2021. Don't laugh. It could happen ...?

Podgey

In my corner of the world, rec tennis has resumed. I'm playing some league matches and, well, the rust is obvious. I've also found my way back onto the ball machine at my local courts, so it's just a matter of time. I hope.

My Martina dress project is still on and I thought that creating the pattern from scratch would be the hardest part. Once that was done, all I had to do was cut it into fabric and voila! Right?! Right?? So to do this, I held the bodice up to my body. I knew I didn't want it as short as Martina's dress, but flattering still. So I added two inches to the skirt, marked my fabric and began cutting. 

I didn't even notice it at first. Instead, I held up my handiwork like that monkey holding Simba in The Lion King. I was just as proud of myself, too. Then I began translating the darts onto the fabric. I was about to cut the back piece out when I took another look at the front. 

Then I sized it up against my own body again.

So my measurements were a bit off. As I've said before, anything involving numbers is going to be a situation for me. I thought I'd have a lot of time to get through this draft dress before tackling the real one (if you are reading this and have no idea what I'm talking about, refer here, please), but it looks like I'm going to have to *gulp* set a goal. I think I'll try to finish this before Election Day here in the States, because I have no idea the sort of condition I'll be in when that's over. Best to do something positive in that time.

More hodge than podge

I've been writing some articles about tennis for STACK.com, which is aimed at young people trying to become better at their sport and older athletes trying to expand their game. My first article (read here!) is about mindfulness and tennis and I have a quick real-life story about it. So I was playing a match a couple of weeks ago against a really annoying opponent. The person who wants to swap recipes and family trees on changeovers. The one who repeats your serve score -- and gets it wrong, then argues with you about it. The one who, as your game gradually deteriorates, says things like, "That was a nice try, though." Also, she had a good, solid game. Anyway, I was down a set and significantly down in the second and a pattern began to play out where I went up at least 30-love on my serve, and then lost the game. I'm at 40-0, and in about a minute, it's deuce, and I thought to myself, "I'm about to do this again! Why can't I hold my serve?!" Then I stopped and reminded myself that what happened earlier in the match was the past and how I perform for the rest of this game is up to me -- it's not written in the stars. I needed to remember to play the one game before me at that moment. 

The crazy part is that it worked. Mostly. I won that game and ended up in a second-set tiebreaker, and things didn't go great there. But what I did to get out of that hole is a form of mindfulness. I'm just sharing that so you understand that even if your match is going by quickly, you still have the time to exercise mindfulness in a meaningful way when you're on court. 

All right, I've got some fabric-measuring to do. Whoop!